Michael S. Greco
President-Elect Nominee, American Bar Association
Acceptance Remarks to
American Bar Association House of Delegates
San Antonio, Texas - February 9, 2004
Mr. Chair, fellow delegates, and friends, thank you for your warm welcome. I am
very honored to receive this nomination and I accept it, respectfully and with humility.
I want to begin by thanking the members of the Nominating Committee for your
vote of confidence, and for giving me this opportunity to serve.
Our Association is fortunate that two other very distinguished lawyers offered
themselves as candidates for this office – my good friends Tom Hayward of Illinois and
Earle Lasseter of Georgia. I commend them, and thank them, for their many
contributions to the Association and profession, and for their gracious offer of
assistance as we go forward, which I have gladly accepted. I ask you to join me in
acknowledging them.
Please permit me to give special thanks to my wife Dianne, who is here today.
Dianne and I met as teenagers in the Midwest forty-four years ago, and she is
my best friend and inspiration. She teaches vocal music in a Boston elementary school,
and I know of no teacher more caring or dedicated to her students, nor a mother more
loved by her children. I thank her for her love and constant support, and ask her to
stand to receive your welcome.
Three of our children -- Jordan, Abigail, and Elizabeth -- are able to be with us
today, and I thank them, and each of our wonderful children, for their love and support.
A number of colleagues from my law firm, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, have traveled
far to be here with me today, and I ask them to stand to receive your welcome, and my
heartfelt thanks for their support.
I want to tell you a story about a young boy.
In an October more than half a century ago, a seven-year old boy and his family
traveled by ship from an Italian port to New York Harbor to begin life in America. At
dawn on the day that the ship was to reach New York, the boy was already on deck,
watching the sun rising, excitedly anticipating his first sight of the Statue of Liberty. By
the time the ship was in the harbor, and the statue came into view, the eager boy had
been joined on deck by his family, and by scores of others.
The boy never forgot his first sight of that majestic statue, nor the feelings that
raced through him at that very moment, nor his first step on America’s soil. He has
deeply cherished the opportunities for growth and freedom that this wonderful country
has afforded him.
Ladies and gentlemen, I was that young boy.
My journey to this podium has covered many miles. It began in a small village in
southern Italy, then to a village in America’s Midwest -- Illinois -- my mother’s birthplace
-- where I grew up and had a wonderful childhood and an excellent public school
education, then to Princeton University on an academic scholarship. After Princeton I
was a high school English teacher for several very enjoyable years, and then to Boston
for my legal education, where I have lived ever since.
I became a lawyer 32 years ago, spending the first 30 years with the outstanding
Boston firm of Hill & Barlow, and now with the great national firm of Kirkpatrick &
Lockhart --- firms that I joined not only because of their commitment to excellence, but
because of their commitment to public service.
And so, I know the true meaning of that eloquent promise, “equal opportunity for
all in America”.
From personal experience, I know that America derives its strength from the
diversity and the talents of all who live in this great country.
From personal experience, I know how important it is that all young people be
given the opportunity to work hard, to develop their abilities, and to contribute them to
this great nation.
And I will continue to do all in my power to help ensure that the promise of “equal
opportunity for all” is a promise that we keep, for every person in America.
I have been a member of the American Bar Association for about as long as I
have been a lawyer. I am proud to be a member of this Association, and immensely
proud to be a lawyer because lawyers protect what that young boy knew intuitively
when he first saw the Statue of Liberty and what it symbolizes throughout the world: our
freedom; our democracy; and our unwavering belief in the rule of law.
I am also proud to be from New England, and from Massachusetts, a state that
has given this Association three very distinguished presidents: Moorfield Storey in 1895;
Robert Meserve in 1972; and John J. Curtin, Jr., in 1990. These three individuals
embody the outstanding, progressive, and caring leadership for which our Association is
so well known and respected.
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I have been privileged to know and work closely with Jack Curtin for more than
twenty-five years.
He has been for me a mentor, role model, and good friend.
Thirteen years ago, President Curtin, at a podium at our Annual Meeting in Atlanta,
Georgia, spoke for our profession when he said this about the role of the lawyer in
America:
Anyone who believes that a better day dawns when lawyers
are
eliminated has the burden of explaining who will take their
place. Who will protect the poor, the injured, the victims of
negligence, the victims of racial discrimination, and the
victims of racial violence? … Lawyers are the … essential means
by which
people seek to vindicate their rights, and we must
not foreclose that means.
Today, I urge the lawyers of America, and especially our government officials,
never to forget that lawyers are the true guardians of the Bill of Rights, and that our
democracy depends on both an independent judiciary and an independent legal
profession. The blood now being shed by young American men and women fighting the
war on terrorism can only be justified if it is shed to protect our freedoms, as well as our
borders.
To anyone who would seek to diminish the role of lawyers in society, I say this:
the greatest democracy the world has ever known flourishes only because of the rule of
law. And without lawyers, there would be no rule of law.
Every day, every hour, in every community in America, lawyers serve people and
our country in countless ways, protecting the rights of those who cannot protect
themselves.
Within that spirit of service is the need now for I what I call a “renaissance of
idealism” in our profession: a re-affirmation by, and for, all lawyers of the core values
and ethical principles that have guided our profession from the beginning of this nation.
In the time ahead, I will call upon you, and this Association, to lead this
renaissance --- to remind all lawyers of the idealism and the desire for public service
that led us to become lawyers, and to help make available ways and means by which
lawyers can engage in public service; --- to educate the American people about the
lawyer’s role in our society as problem solver and protector of the rights that we hold so
dear; --- and to reaffirm for everyone in America and throughout the world the greatness
of our legal system and the critical importance of protecting it, especially now, and
improving it.
Finally, I want you to know how proud I am to follow President Dennis Archer,
and President-Elect Robert Grey, whose legacies as leaders of this Association will
inspire us, and future generations. I look forward to working with them, and to furthering
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their efforts to achieve greater diversity in our profession, to improve the administration
of justice, and to advocate for our profession.
It has been a remarkable journey for the young boy from the small village in Italy.
I regret that my parents did not live to see this day. Each of you in this room, or your
ancestors, at different times in this nation’s history, has made a similar journey.
But it is the journey that now lies ahead that joins all of us, and strengthens us,
and challenges us.
You have given me your support and your trust for that journey. I ask you now to
join me, and for your help along the way.
Thank you again for this extraordinary honor.
And now, let us begin.
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